News Around the World

I've mentioned in an earlier post that my students love Current Events Friday!  All week the kids watch the news and keep up with local, national, and world events.  Two students sign up to present two articles every Friday.  We put the desks in a circle to create more of a discussion than a presentation.  I like the comfort level this naturally creates.  When each presenter is done with an article, he or she asks the class if they have any questions which they should be prepared to answer...as best they can!  I'd rather they admit that they can't answer a question and then have someone in the class grab a laptop to learn more.  Once all of the presentations are finished, we open the floor to anyone else who would like to share a news story, and then we watch the news and discuss stories that interest us.  The kids love it! 

One thing that I require of each presenter is that at least one of their stories is an international event.  This can sometimes be a challenge for middle level students, not only locating these stories but also making sense of their context.  I have shown them how to use Google News effectively, but yesterday I found something that will be an extremely useful tool for next year. 

With this website, Newspaper Map, one can find newspapers from around the world plotted on a map.  Now, it couldn't be easier to find international stories.  The best part is that they are color coded by language, and if a newspaper is not printed in English, Google Translator will translate it into English (or any language of your choice) with the click of a button!  I love a site that truly connects the world.

Student-Questioning Resource

I love me a good resource!  Not one that is hidden behind a lot of theory and data...just stuff you can use!  My friend @JohnMVenner retweeted this gem today.  Right now, my building is focusing heavily on questioning.  Not just teachers asking the right questions, but getting students to ask effective questions.  Here is a beautiful resource with graphic organizers and short descriptions for how to help students generate their own questions.  These particular examples are designed to use with newspapers, but these tools can certainly be fixed to fit all of your questioning activities.
Essential Question Resources

Google Differentiates!

If you go back and read my very first blog, you will find a super-ambitious goal that I set for myself...one post a day on this here blog.  So, 2 months and only 7 posts later. here we are.  Thank goodness @khornberger got me back on track.  How about a new goal?  2 per week?  That may be more realistic for now.  

So on to the post...

The trouble with setting students loose to do research on Google is that while it can be exciting, it can also be risky.  While I am all for free exploration, there are some difficulties that arise when a student is left to his or her own devices.  Of course there's the dreaded adult sites, ads, junk sites, and of course, long boring text without pictures...but what about sites that students just can't understand?  Or, what about sites that don't challenge those advanced readers? 

Google has managed to be awesome again.  Within their advanced search options, you can search by reading level!  I know this is nothing new, but it is worth mentioning. 

I have used this to differentiate reading material for students of different reading levels.  What's more impressive is when students use this search feature themselves and challenge themselves to intermediate or even advanced readings.   When you are entering your search fields, you can use the drop down menu to either choose a specific reading level, or you can choose for the search to specify the reading levels of the filtered resources.  This is something worth checking out when planning lessons, research projects, or directing the students to find resources for themselves.  

Gotta love Google!

If I Were Born In...

I love when you stumble upon a hidden gem on the web.  The Lottery of Life wandered into my world a few weeks ago and I thought it was awesome way to encourage kids to see the world from another person's shoes.  Make sure you have your sound on!

The site takes a looong time to load.  You'll know it's ready when a little arrow pops up on the upper right side of the wheel that says Spin the Wheel.  Then it will load again.  ...I've been lucky and had quick loads here and there, but I have also had to wait quite a bit. 

Anyway, you'll spin and spin and then land in a setting.  A baby will cry (that's you) and it will tell you where you were born.  There will be a list of problems that exist in your country, as well as links where you can learn more about your country.  By clicking on the problems, you can learn more about them and also see what is being done to solve those problems. 

The students love this site because they talk about where they were born and then exchange stories about what life must be like there.  It is amazing to see their level of engagement and excitement.  They ask questions and eagerly further their research.

I used this site within our Human Rights unit.  On our class blog, I asked the students to write one well-written reply to the question, which human right is most valuable to you?  Then, after the spun the Lottery of Life wheel, they have to write a second reply to the same question but this time from the perspective of a child from the country that they landed on.  The last step was for students to respond to one another.  This piece was invaluable because it created a lot of, "really? that happens?" realizations and other rich dialogue.  Something else I observed was that students who don't typically do homework were asking if they could finish the assignment at home, since the website took so long to load.  I told them that they would have time in class the next day, but who am I to tell a student that he/she can't go home and learn???  By all means, I said.

Current Events: This Week in Rap?

Every week, my students celebrate Current Events Friday...I'm not sure how much a of a celebration it actually is, but we enjoy putting our desks into a discussion circle and sharing what's been going on in the news that week. 

In the first week of school, I have the students sign up for one day to lead the discussion.  They expectation is that they will follow the news that week and come in on Friday, prepared to share two stories--one of international importance and one of their choice.  I don't ask that anything be turned in or written because I want this to be casual and not "extra work."  I think by removing the pressure of turning in an assignment, the students are more motivated and enthusiastic.  After the student shares his/her articles, they answer any questions their peers may have, and then we let the class share any other news they heard that week.  If we do happen to run out of things to talk about, which does not happen often, we watch the news.  The students really look forward to Current Events Friday!  It's also a perfect way to wrap up the week. 

I came across this on Twitter today thanks to @shannonmmiller.  I'm not sure if it has a place in my classroom, but it might be a fun way to quickly share the news with students.  I'd like to see my kids create something like this themselves, but then I wrestle with the question of whether the time and work is worth the desired outcome?  Do my students already effectively meet the learning objectives of becoming aware of the news around the world via Current Events Friday or would this be a valuable addition to the routine?  Maybe make it an option???

Bl-oogle???

That's my poor attempt at a word blend for Bloom and Google. Here's why. I am working with my team to become a sort of school within a school. We want our team to move ahead when it comes to technology integration. I came across this great blog post by Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) on his blog Free Technology for Teachers. By the way, this is an incredible site for resources! He is actually sharing the work of another amazing blogger and tech-leader, Kathy Schrock.

Anyway, back to Bloogle. As my team is figuring out how to best integrate technology in order to create the optimal learning experience for our students, we are finding ourselves stuck between an overwhelming number of resources and trying to figure out how to use those resources most effectively. In trying to incorporate technology, we don't want to lose sight of learning objectives, standards, and anchors because--well, let's be honest--the kids must do well on the test! I hate admitting that.

I take a lot of time to teach my students Bloom's levels of understanding. I challenge them to take their own learning and understanding to the next level...and they do! Yet I also tend to overwhelm them with technology tools. I try to show them Web2.0 possibilities, but it gets lost when we jump from program to program to achieve different outcomes. They are overwhelmed by passwords and account creation...in fact, that takes up a great deal of our class time.

I am a big fan of Google and believe that they are leading the way when it comes to integrating tools and content. I am excited to say that my school finally took the jump to allow each student a Google account! now, we can use these great programs with them. One user name, one password. Consistency!

Then, I read Richard Byrne's blog about Kathy Schrock's Google Bloom's Taxonomy!

She has created a resource where you can see which Google tools support different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. I especially love that each icon is a button that takes you directly to the program! Very useful. This is something I would share with the teachers on my team, but also with my students. In fact, we just had a discussion this morning about how we do not want to use technology to deliver information, but let the kids use the technology to demonstrate their learning to us...duh. As if this is new. We just want to keep reminding ourselves.

If It Were My Home...

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this, but we recently rewrote the social studies curriculum.  I was teaching the Middle Ages around the world.  Even I had trouble seeing the relevence and worth of this content in the 21st century classroom.  My new course is Global Awareness.  We look at world issues, follow current events, and use technology to make global connections.  People worried that 7th grade might be too young for this type of curriculum, but I think it's a perfect age.  They are open-minded, interested, and inquisitive!  Plus, our department wanted to test a sort of backwards approach theory.  In 7th grade, students will learn where we are currently and generate an interest in social issues, culture, and geography.  Then, studnets might be interested in learning the history of how we got here and what came before us. 

This is my first year teaching this course and so far I think it's going very well!  Students are going home and talking about real issues.  They are asking questions that matter and debating topics that impact them directly. 

I am excited about all of the great resources out there that help to support my textbook-less classroom.  Thank goodness I hopped on the Twitter bandwagon when I did.  You can check out our Links page for all of our great finds.  Well, mine anyway.  Ian has yet to link up. 

Here is one that I found via Twitter yesterday.  I can talk to the kids all day about the state of affairs in different countries, but numbers don't mean much unless that have something to compare them to.  IfItWereMyHome.com is a great website that does just that. 

If you choose one of the countries from the tag cloud on the bottom of the page, it creates a map that overlays an image of that country on top of the U.S. to give an idea of the realtive size.  Then, there is a list of comparisons that relates infant mortality rates and income per capita, but it kid-friendly language.  For example, If you lived in Burma instead of the United States, you would make 93.76% less money.  By the way, I never realized how big Burma was! 

We'll be using this in class to make comparisons to different countries as they come up in discussion.  I have also been working closely with the math teacher on my team (new to Twitter, @JohnMVenner) who has been creating infographics with students to represent country data.  This will bea  great resource for us to share as we work to make our 7thgraders more aware and empathetic of the way people live around the world.